The act allows exceptions to the prohibition against a wage differential based on sex if the employer demonstrates that a wage differential is not based on wage rate history and is based upon one or more of the following factors, so long as the employer applies the factors reasonably and they account for the entire wage rate differential:

- A seniority system;

- A merit system;

- A system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production;

- The geographic location where the work is performed;

- Education, training, or experience to the extent that they are reasonably related to the work in question; or

- Travel, if the travel is a regular and necessary condition of the work performed.

The things you listed, like taking the job for less because you lack the relevant education are actual exceptions written into the law.